Beta 58A vs e935 vs enCORE 200
 

I’m toying with the idea of buying a super easy cardioid vocal mic for my duet partners, church use, and occasionally for myself. So I went to the local Guitar Center today when the place was nearly empty and asked to demo three mics within about $20 of one another… the Shure Beta 58A, the Sennheiser e935, and the Blue enCORE 200.

There were two sales guys and a customer all hanging out talking and when the mics were taken out of the display case they decided to make a bet on which one was going to win. One of the sales guys and the customer thought the Shure would take it easily and the second sales guy bet on the Blue. I thought the Senn would take it because of my experience with their e865.

We all went into the PA room and I hooked up to a Yamaha MG24 mixer, into a Crown amp and then a JBL MRX515. The EQ was flat and I just traded the mics over and over again singing a few songs.

Quite simply, the Blue enCORE 200 won. It was the smoothest, most life-like, easiest, most plosive-free mic of the three and it was my favorite and the favorite of one of the sales guys and the customer.

The other sales guy liked the Shure, but it came in third for me. He thought it was the most life-like, but to me it sounded “processed”.

In second place was the Senn. This was quite close to the Blue, but it lost out due to a slight “edginess” or “zing”, and also because the Blue handled plosives better. The Senn however was the best at reaching out – I could treat it a lot like my e865, which is the mic I use most frequently for myself, and sing a good 5-6 inches away.

These are all nicely made, robust looking (I’m not enamored with the Blue’s golden grill) mics that are gonna be highly voice and style dependent, so your mileage may vary.

Peace,
buzzardwhiskey

I like the Blue but I didn't buy it. I ended up with the e935 because I didn't like the "bling" of the Blue.

Haha! I'm hearing ya. I really wish I could get it with a different grill. The other customer who was there suggested that I spray paint it. :)